Reflections in Dal lake

In this crucial election year, those old questions have acquired a new urgency: Is the Congress prepared to stitch up alliances with other parties? Can Sonia8217;s haughty party find it in itself to unbend enough, can it summon the requisite flexibility, to enter into an arrangement of political give and take? Will India8217;s oldest party finally read the writing on the wall? At Srinagar, Sonia Gandhi would appear to have given the most fulsome indications yet that the party is preparing to junk the Panchmarhi mindset, and not just for UP. It was hedged in by wait-and-sees, but the message was clear and, given the party8217;s recent history, startling: The Congress may be thinking of a grand alliance at the Centre after lending support for an alternative government in UP. But questions remain. Is this newly 8220;open8221; mind on the question of alliances the sign of a refreshing maturity, or just an impatient plunge into the game of political make-and-break? For the sake of the party, and the nation, we hope the Congress has thought this through.

There are other issues as well on which we would urge more clarity from the Congress. Like whether or not the party is firmly behind Ashok Gehlot8217;s promise of upper caste quotas. At Srinagar, the Congress chief expediently deflected the ball into another court. Nothing new about it, she said, didn8217;t the Narasimha Rao government do it too? On the economic front, the Congress slogan of 8220;Congress ka haath garib ke saath8221; is unexceptionable. But it has nothing to say on the lingering gap between the party8217;s populist rhetoric at the Centre and its governments8217; brave attempts to modernise the economies in the states. Finally, while the Congress chief unequivocally commended Ashok Gehlot for calling a halt to Praveen Togadia8217;s march in Rajasthan, she was notably silent on Digvijay Singh8217;s 8220;soft Hindutva8221; experiment in Madhya Pradesh. Just two days in Srinagar were too short a time, perhaps. Perhaps Congress worthies should be packed off for another brainstorming in another enchanting locale.

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